Dr. Buchanan on the Wound of the Ferret. 381 



its instruments muscular fibres under the direction of the nervous 

 system, and produces, without the body, structures which bear 

 the same impress of regularity and beauty as those within it, and 

 co-operate with them to the same ends — the preservation of the 

 individual and the species. Corals and other polypidoms may 

 be considered as standing in the very same relation to the swarms 

 of zoophytes which people them, in which the honey-comb does 

 to a swarm of bees. Both are structures external to the bodies 

 of the animals which produce them, and both are the products of 

 the same organizative power; the only difference being, that in 

 the one case this formative power employs its ordinary instru- 

 ments — cells, and possibly vessels — while in the other it em- 

 ploys the more unwonted apparatus of muscular fibres. 



I have more recently had an opportunity of examining several 

 animals killed by the Ferret. I found that instead of there being 

 only one wound, there are always several, as might, indeed, have 

 been inferred from the mechanism of the jaws, and their being 

 armed with four tusks. The wounds are so minute as to be im- 

 perceptible externally, unless one of the tusks has pierced the 

 jugular or some other superficial vein, so as to stain the sur- 

 rounding skin with blood ; but as this, although generally, does 

 not always happen, there may be no external mark visible. But, 

 on dissecting off the skin, the wounds become at once apparent 

 in the cellular and muscular substance beneath. The injury done 

 to the upper part of the spine is therefore more extensive than 

 I had at first supposed. It is also less uniform in its seat ; as I 

 more than once found that the tusk had pierced the cranium, and 

 gone deep into the back part of the brain. The mode of attack 

 is also very various, according to the relative strength of the com- 

 batants ; but the struggle is always brief; and the Ferret never 

 remains after it to suck the blood. 



From these observations, confirmed as they were in all essen- 

 tial respects by many others made under the eye of an intelligent 

 friend, I was disposed to conclude that the vulgar belief of the 

 Ferret destroying its victims by blood-sucking was erroneous; 

 and that it had most probably arisen from the appearance of the 

 dead animals, which exhibit commonly no mark of injury but a 

 small wound, surrounded by a bloody patch on the neck. Now, 

 the very same appearance would be produced by a leech fasten- 

 ing on the neck : and hence most probably it was inferred that 

 the leech and the Ferret practised the same mode of attack. 

 This opinion has, however, received the sanction of the highest 

 authorities in natural history. Buffon says*, " The Ferret is na- 

 turally the mortal enemy of the rabbit. On presenting a rabbit, 



* Histoire Naturelle, vol. vii. p. 211. 



